Etekcity 0.1g Food Kitchen Scale with Bowl, Digital Grams and Ounces, 11lb/5kg, Stainless Steel Silver Review (2026)

Who this scale fits

This scale is aimed at makers who want a single accurate scale for weighing both oils and lye rather than juggling separate tools, and the included bowl makes it convenient for pouring liquid oils or butters straight onto the platform without a separate container. The 11 pound, 5 kilogram capacity covers the large majority of home cold process batches, from small test batches up to sizable loaf mold pours, and the stainless steel build fits a kitchen or workshop setting equally well. Makers who need to weigh very large batches beyond 11 pounds, or who exclusively work in tiny fragrance oil amounts under a gram, may find this scale is not specialized enough at either extreme, but as an everyday soap scale it covers the middle ground well.

Build, display, and controls

The scale itself is built around a 304 stainless steel weighing surface, described by the manufacturer as food safe and easy to wipe clean, with a backlit LCD display that shows the reading clearly. It switches between several units including grams, ounces, and pound-ounce combinations, which is useful since many soap recipes are written in ounces while lye calculators often prefer grams. A removable 2.15 liter stainless steel bowl sits on top of the platform for pouring liquids or scooping loose ingredients like lye or oils, and it lifts off for cleaning or for weighing directly on the flat platform when the bowl is not needed. Tare and auto-zero functions let you reset to zero with a container already on the scale, and it runs on two AAA batteries with auto-off to save power.

Using it for lye and oils safely

In practice, most soap makers keep one scale, or at least one bowl, dedicated entirely to lye and never let it cross back into food use, and that discipline matters here since the bowl is removable and could otherwise end up back in a kitchen drawer. Weighing water or oils into the bowl, then taring and adding the next ingredient, is a smooth workflow for building a lye solution or a full oil blend in stages. The flat platform under the bowl also works on its own for weighing a pre-mixed container of fragrance oil or additives directly, without dirtying the bowl. Cleaning the stainless surfaces after each session is quick, but bowl and scale should be clearly labeled or physically separated from any food use once they have touched lye.

How it compares to other scales in this range

Against a mini pocket scale like the Cotchear model, this Etekcity unit has a real advantage in capacity and in the included bowl, which a small platform scale cannot match for pouring liquids. Against another Etekcity model sold without the bowl, the trade off is mostly storage size, the bowl adds bulk when you are not using it, so a small cupboard or drawer may struggle to fit it compared with a flat, bowl-free scale. For makers who value convenience over compact storage, the bowl earns its keep on pour and weigh steps that would otherwise need a separate container.

Bottom line

This scale suits makers who want one accurate, food safe tool that handles both the oil and lye sides of a cold process recipe, with a bowl that speeds up pouring and mixing steps along the way. Anyone tight on storage space, or who already has a dedicated lye scale and just needs a compact backup, might prefer a smaller bowl-free scale instead, since the bowl does add bulk to the overall package when it is stored rather than in use. As long as the bowl is kept strictly for soap making once it has held lye, this is a solid, accurate everyday scale for the craft that should handle years of regular batches without trouble.

Frequently asked questions